2012 Midseason TV Preview

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UPDATE: Community's return date, Game of Thrones and Mad Men, a new Spartacus arrives, J.J. Abrams' new island, and much, much more.

By Eric Goldman and Matt Fowler

After most shows took a holiday/December break, TV is back in a big way, as we move into midseason programming. Not only are shows that began last fall continuing, but there are plenty of premieres as well. There are new series starring everyone from Jorge Garcia to Kristen Bell to Kiefer Sutherland on the horizon, not to mention the return of some very cool and popular series that take us from Capua to Westeros. Of course, there's also some shows you would do well to avoid, starting with the very first series below…

Update: Dates have now been revealed and added to the listings for all the series on this list.

It's quite possible that that "terrible event" that the Mayan's predicted for 2012 was this new ABC sitcom. Benjamin Koldyke and Amaury Nolasco play two dudes who dress up like women to get jobs at a pharmaceutical company that, for whatever reason, is only hiring women. What follows is pure, undeserved hell. On the viewer. Read IGN's review of Work It here. You have been sufficiently warned. Also, keep in mind that ABC president Paul Lee is, in fact, trolling all of us, as he admitted back in the summer, during the TCA Press Tour, that he enjoyed the fact that critics all hated this show.

Update: By the time we got to updating this article, less then two weeks later, Work It had already been pulled from ABC's schedule. We won't be mourning it...

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein return for another season of the Portland, OR-based sketch series. Guest stars this time out will include Tim Robbins, Kristen Wiig, Jack McBrayer, Penny Marshall, Andy Samberg and Amber Tamblyn, plus an impressive array of music-related guest, including Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, The Smiths' Johnny Marr, singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom and St. Vincent's Annie Clark. There's also an episode aimed right at Battlestar Galactica fans, which you can get a glimpse of below.

David Cross returns to IFC for a second helping of his own personal "comedy of errors" that also features Arrested Development/Up All Night's Will Arnett, Sharon Horgan and Blake Harrison. Look for Mad Men's Jon Hamm to pop up this season too (making silly computer noises!), as Cross' Todd Margaret -- a temp living in England trying to sell an energy drink called Thunder Muscle -- gets into even more trouble with his lies.

Striking while the iron is, um, cold, NBC has decided to not remake but continue the story of Tom Cruise's character, Mitch McDeere, from the hit 1993 movie The Firm, based on the John Grisham novel. And since the whole "McDeere finding out his esteemed law firm is corrupt" thing worked so well almost 20 years ago, why not give it another whirl? This time Josh Lucas plays McDeere, 10 years later, as he and his family emerge from protective custody to find themselves in an entirely new dangerous "firm"y situation.

Update: After a few weeks of dreadful ratings, The Firm is being moved to Saturday nights. AKA: NBC is burning off the remaining episodes and the show is pretty much dead.

Season 2 of the Showtime series will find Fiona trying to move on without Steve and Frank trying to keep the fact that he slept with Karen (sigh… and ugh…) a secret from her mother. Look for an expanded role for Amy Smart's Jasmine and a new actress taking over for Mandy, now that Jane Levy has moved on to Suburgatory - and a whole lot of marijuana to play into the season premiere.

Don Cheadle takes on his first TV series since Picket Fences with Showtime's new series about a cutthroat "management consultant" and his team. The cast also includes Heroes' Dawn Olivieri and Parks and Recreation's Ben Schwartz, but we're particularly excited to see Kristen Bell. We only hope this series gives her material half as good as Veronica Mars offered her.

The RZA and Justified's Natalie Zea drop by Season 5 as – and please don't quote us on this – "Hanksta Goes Gangsta." Hank Moody must entertain the notions of an eccentric rap artist named Samurai Apocalypse who wants to break into the movie business by starring in a movie called "Santa Monica Cop." Of course Hank will get into trouble with Samurai's girlfriend and he just may find himself being precariously held over the edge of a hotel balcony, Suge Knight-style.

We have no idea who any of the characters are on this show, or why they've never thought about planting a second tree on that damn hill. But we do know that One Tree Hill is going into its final season, wrapping up a rather amazing eight-season run. You have to give the show credit for lasting that long, and we'll miss its always-hilarious contributions to The Soup. "Stay out of it, Nick Lachey!"

With That 70's Show's Laura Prepon playing Chelsea Handler Newman and Chelsea Handler playing Chelsea's sister, NBC's Are You There, Chelsea? is loosely based on Handler's own autobiographical tales of drunken irresponsible debauchery from her best-selling books. The plan is to pair this show up with Whitney for a full hour of "women be raunchy" comedy.